People involved

The people involved in running the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand - profiles our of our patron, chairperson and national executive.

You can get involved in the day-to-day running of the Republican Movement - join us for just $10 a year and see the get involved pages for how you can help. You can start your own local group.

Patron

Keri Hulme knows Aotearoa New Zealand will become a republic, but wants it to happen sooner, rather than later. She is a writer and fisher, born in 1947 of Ngai Tahu descent.

Although Keri "doesn't go in for fishing competitions", her writing has won many national and international awards - most notably the 1985 Booker Prize for her novel The Bone People.

Chair

Lewis (LJ) Holden has been involved with the Republican Movement since early 2004 and became the chairperson at the end of 2006.

Lewis believes in a New Zealand head of State because he believes New Zealanders have the right to aspire to all the institutions of our country. He believes that a New Zealand head of state should be a proper check and balance on the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 

Lewis lives in Auckland and works in the IT industry.

National executive

Savage (Vice-chair) is an Auckland screenwriter. He was a founding member of the Republican Coalition in 1994 and served as the first president. He has been an active member on the national executive and is currently the editor of the Republic newsletter. Savage was previously involved in the Electoral Reform Coalition during the MMP campaign in 1993 and the Auckland City Council STV campaign 2002 - 2003. He runs his own film production company, Open Fire Films Limited, as well as a house renovation company West Coast Painting. He is also the Director of The Drug Rights Project and works locally as an organiser for Karekare Landcare, a West Auckland conservation group.

David Farrar owns and manages a small polling and market research company, Curia Market Research. Prior to that he spent eight years in Parliament working for National Party Prime Ministers and Opposition Leaders from Jim Bolger to Don Brash.

He believes in a New Zealand head of State because he thinks New Zealand ought to have a head of State of its own, and that it is wrong that the Prime Minister can remove the Governor-General from office. 

David runs the popular centre-right politics blog kiwiblog.co.nz

Dean Knight (Constitutional adviser) is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) and an Associate Director of the New Zealand Centre for Public Law. Dean's teaching and research is in constitutional and administrative law, local government and the Rule of Law. As well as being a regular commentator on Radio New Zealand National on public law issues, Dean has a blog on contemporary legal issues: LAWS179: Elephants and the Law. 

Mike Wilkinson (Secretary) is an economist and a passionate New Zealander who became involved with the Republican Movement in 2011 when he realised its importance as the next key step for the political development of the country. As well as thinking New Zealanders should step forth with their independence from Britain, Mike believes it is time for informed debate about how we control our government in its decisions.

Mike lives in Auckland and currently works on economic issues for retail payment systems.

Kieran McAnulty (Treasurer) is a proud Wairarapa Bush supporter and a Sports Bookie for the TAB. Like many New Zealanders, his views on his home country were greatly influenced by the time he spent away from it. While playing rugby in Ireland, Kieran always struggled to explain how New Zealanders were certainly not British, despite having the Queen as their head of State.

His republican views are strongly influenced by his family's Irish heritage and his belief in the fundamental right of New Zealanders to determine whom holds positions of influence in this country, regardless of how symbolic that position may be. Kieran is currently Deputy Chair of the Rural Affairs Sector Council of the Labour Party and represents that group on Labour’s Economic Policy Council. He holds a BA and PGDipArts in Politics, having recently submitted his Masters thesis, which discussed the role of Political Positioning, Communication and Strategy under MMP.

Tyrone Barugh is a student in Wellington, studying Law and Economics. “My involvement with our Royal Family is pretty much limited to infrequently perusing Woman's Day (I read them when I see them). I'm looking forward to being involved with the Republican Movement, and I'm looking forward to November! Feel free to get in touch – I’ll be working with our members to bring about a New Zealand Head of State!".

Merv Ransom (Membership) hails from Levin (Horowhenua) and is of Ngati Toa and Muaupoko descent.
His background is in social work; the main interest area being 'radical social work' where inequalities and structural concerns are questioned.

He believes strongly in the Republican Movement, that we are all created equal, Maori should be accorded more respect regarding their voice as the indigenous culture of Aotearoa, that our head of State should reflect New Zealand interests better following democratic processes and eagerly awaits the day when we become a republic.